Angular vs React : Comparing the two technologies

It's fascinating to think about why one thing becomes more popular than another. It can have a direct bearing on project’s durability and ability to fit in deadlines, further code maintainability, and scalability of your future app.

The goal of this article is not to find the best technology, but to compare, highlight, and clarify few misconceptions.

Technology

Angular

React

Type

MVC framework written in JavaScript

JavaScript Library that has view in MVC, however requires flux to implement architecture

Concept/ Process

Works by bringing JavaScript into HTML with the real DOM client-side rendering

Works by bringing HTML into JavaScript with virtual DOM server-side rendering

Data Binding

Two-way data binding

One-way data binding

Dependencies

Manages dependencies automatically

Requires additional tools to manage dependencies

Best suited

Best for SPA’s that update single view at a time

Best for SPA’s that update many views at a time

We have further discussed their individual differences with respect to componentization, performance, data binding, directives, and templates.

Data Binding

The Data binding concept is considered as major difference between Angular and React. Angular web development uses Two-way data binding which means that any change in the UI field would also change the data in the model dynamically. In case of React web development, it uses one-way data binding, where the data in the application flows in a single direction. Angular is efficient as developers find it easy to work with whereas React is more towards the structural representation, understandability because the data flows in a single direction

Performance

The advantage in Angular’s performance is the feature of two- way data binding whereas React utilizes a virtual Document Object Model, which is considered as an advantage of React in comparison with other frameworks including Angular. However, the performance of an application may vary depending on the size of the application and code optimization.

Directives and Templates

Angular Directives are used to organize the code around DOM. Developers can access the directives only through DOM. Developers can also create their own directives other than the standard directives (ng-bind, ng-app) that are available.

React does not distinguish between templates and directives, template logic should be written in the template itself. This approach of template and logic being placed in one place is better as we would spend lesser time in understanding.

Componentization

Angular has a fixed structure and it is based on the three layers that are Model, View, and Controller. The Model is initialized by the controller, which is then transformed into HTML to create View for the users.

React is created with a different architecture that is distinct from Angular but similar to MVC frameworks. There is no specific structure for React. React is a vast JavaScript library that updates the views for the users, the structure lacks model and controller layers, however Facebook introduced Flux that has better control on the application workflow

Conclusion

Angular and React are different instruments that work great for single-page applications in their individual ways. Some developers may prefer angular after considering the reasons to choose angular and some may prefer react. However the decision would be with respect to the project requirements.

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